Tag: American Heart Month

As a result of my husband’s heart attack five months ago, we’ve had a crash course in both heart-healthy and health-zapping foods. Recently, I posted some of the best foods you can eat to help maintain a healthy heart. Today, I’m focusing on the culprits.

It’s unfortunate that many of the least-healthy foods for our hearts are also the most common and easily accessible. Oh, and the cheapest, at least in the short term. They’re definitely not the cheapest when you factor in the practical costs of healthcare following a heart attack.

Here’s a quick and dirty list of what my husband’s heart doctors told us to avoid:

Trans-fats (Look for the terms “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated fat or oil” in the list of ingredients.)

Saturated fats (These are most often of animal origin and are found in items like butter and fatty cuts of meat.)

As you can see from the list, these types of foods are on every street corner and the aisles of every grocery store in the country. They can be hard to avoid, but not impossible. Unfortunately, this means that consumers have to adopt a “buyer beware” attitude and read the ingredient labels on the food products they purchase.

Like this:

Less than one year ago, my husband suffered a heart attack. To say it was a shock is a serious understatement. We were on vacation when it happened, prepared for a week of fun and sun. Instead, we spent much of that time in an intensive care unit.

I couldn’t stay with him after visiting hours, so I went back to our room and had plenty of time to think. At first glance, my husband didn’t appear to have the obvious risk factors for a heart attack. He wasn’t overweight; he didn’t smoke; and his diet wasn’t what most would consider bad. He did have a lot stress because of his job and he didn’t have a daily exercise routine. I suspect that family heredity played a role, as well as undiagnosed high blood pressure.

Excellent care literally gave him a second chance. Now, five months later, he says the heart attack was the best thing that ever happened to him. It was a wake-up call; one that he has heeded. He’s changed his diet to include heart-healthy foods and he’s started exercising daily, losing more than 20 pounds over the last five months.

Sadly, nearly 600,000 people a year in the United States don’t get a second chance. Heart attacks remain the leading cause of death for both men and women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since February is American Heart Month, I think it’s worth reviewing a list of some of the top heart-healthy foods that you can include in your diet. I gathered this list — which is definitely not exhaustive — from a wide variety of sources, including information provided to us by my husband’s heart specialists. The list is not in any particular order: